How to Facilitate Better Brainstorming Sessions

If you have ever been part of a productive brainstorming session, you never forget what an energizing experience it can be.

Something, whether it’s the combination of people or caffeine, is in perfect balance and ideas are being tossed around, debated and built on. By the time people leave the room they are already on a creative streak and buzzing about the potential for the next project.

While you may assume that it’s a random alignment of the stars that leads to this kind of energy, there are certain steps that you can take as a meeting leader to inspire idea generation and better brainstorming.

Managing Effective Brainstorming Sessions

Here are some ways to make your brainstorming better:

Crowdsource All Your Idea-Makers

While brainstorms used to be the kind of meetings that you wanted to cut down to just 4-6 people, MeetingSift makes it possible to involve as many as you want in brainstorming without having to spend more time.

Keep it Diverse

The more variety of people you include in your brainstorming the larger variety of ideas are represented. Studies have shown that some dissent in ideas can lead to more innovative ideas and better overall decision making, especially when people come to the table ready to discuss and cooperate on their ideas.

Keep it Relaxed

One of the main findings of the wide breadth of research on how to generate insight is that moments of genius come to us more often when our brains are able to make loose connections between cognitive areas. This can only happen when people are calm and free of stress.

Keep it Direct

Make sure that the goals being addressed are clear and don’t attempt to tackle too many topics at one time. If there are a lot of problems that need addressing, try holding separate meetings focusing on each problem individually.

These are just a couple suggestions on how to better your brainstorm. The MeetingSift collaborative meeting platform has built in support for brainstorming activity takes care of many other aspects (engagement, participation, anonymity) that will also certainly contribute to your idea generation process. Add these elements and watch the creativity flow!